A 105-person company, Azul Systems, is almost ready to enter the competitive server market with a new approach to computing named 'network-attach processing,' similar to the NAS approach for data storage. In "Azul: A Server Startup with a Plan," BusinessWeek Online writes that the company will release its product in early 2005. Azul designs its own chips and the first boxes will come with an amazing number of 384 cores. These servers will only run 'virtual-machine' codes, such as those written in Java or .net. And the company claims that its servers will be ten times more efficient than other servers. Of course, this is largely unproven technology and the company is trying to build its credibility by giving access to its boxes to selected undisclosed customers for early evaluation. So will Azul unseat IBM, HP, Sun and Dell? Time will tell, but Azul already envisions a second-generation box with 896 cores. Read more...
Here is how BusinessWeek introduces this startup company.
On September 28, the company will launch a brazen attempt to shake up the $50 billion server business. The goal: to exploit a major shift in the way software is developed. It's a gargantuan task, but it's off to a good start: Azul has working prototypes of its innovative server in its labs and has lined up a number of top-shelf tech buyers on Wall Street to do field trials this fall.
What makes Azul's approach different? Today's servers are designed to run a particular brand of software. For example, PCs are tuned to run Windows-compatible programs. But nearly all new corporate software is developed with so-called "virtual-machine" technologies, such as Java or Microsoft's .net, that let it run on any type of underlying hardware. Azul's server, dubbed the compute appliance, is the first designed from scratch to do one thing: run this "virtual machine" code faster and more efficiently than existing servers.
Here are some details about the concept of "network-attach processing."
Stephen DeWitt, [the CEO of the company,] isn't just pushing a new product, but a new approach to computing that he calls "network-attach processing." It's akin to what happened in the data-storage business over the past decade. Rather than lock up data in drives enclosed in individual servers, companies began using "network-attach storage" (NAS) setups that created a central pool of disk capacity. That way, each server would never run out of drive space, and the capacity that was available in the NAS could be allocated more efficiently.
Azul wants to do the same thing for processing: create a central reservoir of number-crunching power that can be tapped by any other server at a moment's notice. DeWitt even wants to change the vocabulary of the computer business. Rather than sell a "server," Azul will sell various-size "pools" of processing, delivered through its compute appliance.
Not only Azul Systems is starting a new computing paradigm, it also designs its own custom chips.
The second innovation is the chip inside the machine. The 105-person Azul has put much of its effort into creating a new kind of processor that's right in line with one of computerdom's latest crazes: multicore chips. Until this year, chipmakers such as Intel, IBM, and Sun focused on single-core processors that do one thing as fast as possible.
While Intel talks about "dual-core" chips and Sun plans to move to 16-core varieties by next year, Azul's first server will have up to 384 cores. Its cores will not be nearly as fast as those from Intel and others. But with so many cores, DeWitt thinks Azul's box will be able to process 10 times more software than rival servers. The second-generation box, due out in early 2006, will have up to 896 cores, he says.
BusinessWeek also interviewed DeWitt, who has some good credentials in the hardware industry. After all, back in 2000, he sold Cobalt Networks to Sun Microsystems for about $2 billion. But now, with a new approach for computing based on radical new chips, he needs to build some credibility for his company. Here is a short excerpt about credibility concerns from this interview, "Server Power That's 'Priceless'."
Q: You know the world is going to be skeptical that your company can pose a threat to giants like IBM, HP, or Sun, right? Or that you will even survive?
A: Yes, the huge wave of skepticism will hit, and that's understandable. We haven't proven anything yet. But we'll take that very high bar and make it the measure people evaluate us on. If we pass it, we reach a credibility that few startups have ever attained. I think people will get that.
And there hasn't been a story like this in the systems world for a long time. The only stories in the systems world have been bad, about delays or mergers or some special sauce [like grid computing] that makes a bad environment just a little bit better. It's going to be fun to watch.
So will Azul beat the current computer giants? We'll see next year.
Source: Peter Burrows, BusinessWeek Online, September 24, 2004
12:42:45 PM
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